O-(Acridinium)hydroxylamine (AHA): a reagent for the preparation of chemiluminescent acridinium oxime (AO)-steroid conjugates

O-(Acridinium)hydroxylamine (AHA) reacted with a representative sample of oxo-steroids (6-oxoestradiol, estrone, norethindrone, cortisol, progesterone, digoxin dialdehyde, and digitoxin dialdehyde) to produce chemiluminescent acridinium oxime (AO) conjugates in a single step in 37-68% yield after preparative HPLC.     

Skp2B stimulates mammary gland development by inhibiting REA, the repressor of the estrogen receptor

Skp2B, an F-box protein of unknown function, is frequently overexpressed in breast cancer. In order to determine the function of Skp2B and whether it has a role in breast cancer, we performed a two-hybrid screen and established transgenic mice expressing Skp2B in the mammary glands. We found that Skp2B interacts with the repressor of estrogen receptor activity (REA) and that overexpression of Skp2B leads to a reduction in REA levels. In the mammary glands of MMTV-Skp2B mice, REA levels are also low. Our results show that in virgin transgenic females, Skp2B induces lobuloalveolar development and differentiation of the mammary glands normally observed during pregnancy. As this phenotype is identical to what was observed for REA heterozygote mice, our observations suggest that the Skp2B-REA interaction is physiologically relevant. However, in contrast to REA(+/-) mice, MMTV-Skp2B mice develop mammary tumors, suggesting that Skp2B affects additional proteins. These results indicate that the observed expression of Skp2B in breast cancer does contribute to tumorigenesis at least in part by modulating the activity of the estrogen receptor.     

人脐血CD34+细胞在NOD/SCID小鼠免疫重建及其抗HBV作用的初步探讨

目的：探讨NOD／SCID（nonobese diabetic／severe combined immunodeficient）小鼠移植人脐带血（human umbilical cord blood,HUCB）CD34＋细胞后免疫重建的特性。建立hu—NOD／SCID人鼠嵌合模型并观察其人源化免疫细胞在小鼠体内的生长分化特性、存活时间及其对HBV感染的清除作用。方法：1．NOD／SCID小鼠于C0603．5Gy照射后24h内尾静脉输注HUCBCD34＋细胞;2．以流式细胞技术鉴定小鼠外周血中CD45＋,CD3＋,CD19＋,CD56＋等人源化细胞的比例;3．NOD／SCID小鼠于移植后第4wk注射HBV感染者血清并以未移植的NOD／SCID小鼠作为对照,注射同等量的患者血清;4．于感染后1、7、10、15天采血,免疫荧光定量PCR方法分别检测其HBV—DNA含量。结果：1．HUCBCD34＋细胞移植后第2wk,在小鼠外周血中检测出的CD3＋CD8＋T细胞、CD3＋CD4＋T细胞、CD19＋B细胞、CD56＋NK细胞的比例分别为18．6％、16．1％、13．1％和27．8％。各细胞比例随小鼠周龄而变化。所有移植小鼠存活时间均达9wk;2．移植后小鼠感染HBV血清后,病毒仅在感染后第一天检出,随后消失;未移植CD34＋细胞的小鼠外周血HBV—DNA一直维持在103水平：结论：1．NOD／SCID小鼠经射线照射后移植HUCBCD34＋细胞,在不加任何刺激因子的情况下小鼠可以长时间存活并重建免疫;2．hu—NOD／SCID人鼠嵌合模型小鼠免疫成功重建后,对HBV感染有快速的清除作用。     

组蛋白甲基化及其与肿瘤间的关系

组蛋白甲基化修饰是表观遗传学的重要研究领域之一,主要可分为精氨酸甲基化和赖氨酸甲基化两种。越来越多的证据表明组蛋白甲基化功能异常与肿瘤的发生发展密切相关,而且这种甲基化修饰过程是可逆的。对组蛋白甲基化的进一步研究,不仅有助于深入了解基因表达、调控、遗传等生理机制,而且对于肿瘤等重大疾病的诊断、防治和预后判断有重要意义。本文对组蛋白甲基转移酶、去甲基化酶及其与肿瘤发生发展的关系予以综述。     

Bt群体信号应答因子nprR基因的缺失对cry1Ac基因表达的影响

摘要：【目的】研究群体信号应答蛋白编码基因nprR在苏云金芽胞杆菌（Bacillus thuringiensis,Bt）HD-73菌株晶体蛋白形成过程中的作用。【方法】通过同源重组,构建了HD-73 nprR基因缺失突变菌株HD73（ΔnprR ）。利用启动子-lacZ融合、SDS-PAGE方法,测定不同培养基中nprR基因转录活性及nprR基因缺失对cry1Ac转录及表达的影响。【结果】启动子转录活性分析表明,在LB和SSM培养基中nprR基因从对数期结束（T0）开始表达,稳定期持续表达。在LB培养基中,nprR基因的缺失使cry1Ac基因在生长过渡期和稳定期前期转录活性显著提高,同时HD73（ΔnprR ）菌株Cry蛋白生成量也明显高于出发菌株HD-73,但是在芽胞形成释放后,Cry蛋白的表达没有明显的区别。【结论】在丰富培养基中苏云金芽胞杆菌nprR基因的缺失在生长过渡期和稳定期前期能够提高cry1Ac基因转录和表达,从而缩短了cry基因表达时间,并且Cry蛋白总产量与出发菌株相当。     

Association between cyclooxygenase-2 gene polymorphisms and risk of periodontitis: a meta-analysis involving 5653 individuals

There ?765G > C, ?1195G > A, and 8473T > C polymorphisms in cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) gene polymorphisms and periodontitis risk were investigated based on published studies; however, their results could not give a conclusive result. Hence, we performed this meta-analysis of six published studies with eight case–control studies including these three polymorphisms which searched from PubMed and Web of Science up to October 15th, 2013. Odds ratios (ORs) with corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the association between the three polymorphisms of COX-2 and periodontitis risk. The results from 2,580 periodontitis patients and 3,073 healthy controls showed that none of ?765G > C, ?1195G > A, or 8473T > C polymorphism was not associated with periodontitis susceptibility [Take ?765G > C for example: OR = 0.94, 95 % CI = (0.57–1.53) for C vs. G; OR = 2.34, 95 % CI = (0.72–7.62) for CC vs. GG; OR = 0.68, 95 % CI = (0.46–1.01) for CG vs. GG; OR = 0.81, 95 % CI = (0.52–1.27) for (CG+GG) vs. GG; OR = 2.57, 95 % CI = (0.80–8.29) for CC vs. (GG+CG)]. In subgroup analyses according to the type of periodontitis and ethnicity for ?765G > C and ?1195G > A, and deviations in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium for ?765G > C, we only observe a boundary association between ?1195G > A polymorphism and Asian population. However, due to limitations of this meta-analysis, the results should treat with caution and we suggest the further researches should be carried out to verify our results.     

长效促胰岛素降糖酵母的构建及其对糖尿病模型小鼠的治疗效果

益生菌生物药物是指通过口服表达药用多肽(蛋白)的重组益生菌活细胞达到治疗疾病的新型口服给药系统。为了构建一种能有效防治2型糖尿病的酵母生物药物,文章首先构建了酿酒酵母(S.cerevisiae)整合型表达载体pNK1-PGK,并且通过绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)证明其表达功能正常,利用该载体将10×GLP-1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1)基因转化到酿酒酵母INVSc1中,通过营养缺陷型和Western blotting成功筛选出表达10×GLP-1的长效促胰岛素降糖酵母(Long-acting GLP-1 hypoglycemic yeast, LHY)。该酵母生长迅速,外源基因10×GLP-1表达稳定,表达量达到1.56 mg/g细胞湿重。通过链脲佐菌素和高脂高糖饮食联合诱导的方法构建了2型糖尿病小鼠模型,用LHY对其进行口服灌胃治疗,证明LHY具有较好疗效,明显降低血糖水平。     

Studies on the Tempo of Bubble Formation in Recently Cavitated Vessels: A Model to Predict the Pressure of Air Bubbles

A cavitation event in a vessel replaces water with a mixture of water vapor and air. A quantitative theory is presented to argue that the tempo of filling of vessels with air has two phases: a fast process that extracts air from stem tissue adjacent to the cavitated vessels (less than 10 s) and a slow phase that extracts air from the atmosphere outside the stem (more than 10 h). A model was designed to estimate how water tension (T) near recently cavitated vessels causes bubbles in embolized vessels to expand or contract as T increases or decreases, respectively. The model also predicts that the hydraulic conductivity of a stem will increase as bubbles collapse. The pressure of air bubbles trapped in vessels of a stem can be predicted from the model based on fitting curves of hydraulic conductivity versus T. The model was validated using data from six stem segments each of Acer mono and the clonal hybrid Populus 84K (Populus alba × Populus glandulosa). The model was fitted to results with root mean square error less than 3%. The model provided new insight into the study of embolism formation in stem tissue and helped quantify the bubble pressure immediately after the fast process referred to above.Vulnerability curves (VCs) have been viewed as a good measure of the drought resistance of woody stems (Cochard et al., 2013). Increasing drought increases the xylem tension (T) and eventually induces cavitation of the water in conduits when the T exceeds a certain threshold (Sperry and Tyree, 1988; Sperry et al., 1996). A cavitated vessel first fills with water vapor and eventually fills with air at atmospheric pressure because of Henry’s law, which describes gas equilibrium at the water/air interface. The time required for the progress mainly depends on the penetration rate of air into the recently cavitated vessel lumen via diffusion through the liquid phase.Previous studies were made about how fast bubbles disappear in embolized stems because of the solubility of air in water when water pressure exceeds atmospheric pressure, and the process takes 10 to 100 h depending on conditions (Tyree and Yang, 1992; Yang and Tyree, 1992). The tempo of bubble disappearance was measured by following the rise in stem hydraulic conductivity (k_h) versus time. The theory of Yang and Tyree (1992) relied on the same principles used in this article (Henry’s law, Fick’s law, and the ideal gas law), but modeling and experiments were done at pressures between 1 and 3 times atmospheric pressure rather than subatmospheric pressure (negative pressure). However, much less is known about the tempo of bubble formation in recently cavitated vessels (Brodersen et al., 2013). If the progress of embolus formation takes several minutes, then no changes in conductivity could be observed with available techniques, but if it takes hours, then the tempo of bubbles can be studied by rapidly inducing cavitation with increasing T and after cavitation induction measuring the influence of T on stem k_h as T is reduced gradually to zero. If air bubbles are at a pressure (bubble pressure [P_b*]) lower than a threshold near atmospheric pressure, bubbles ought to collapse when T decreases according to the ideal gas law and Henry’s law (see theory below). The consequence of bubble collapse will be partial filling of vessels with water and the rest with air bubbles. The partial filling of water in a recently cavitated vessel ought to increase the lumen conductivity from zero and connect the embolized vessel to adjacent conductive vessels and, hence, ought to increase the conductivity of the stem by an additional flow pathway (Wheeler et al., 2005; Hacke et al., 2006). The vascular system of stems is a complicated network with vessels of different lengths, diameters, and orientation (Evert, 2006), and the complex vessel network makes the additional pathway possible. Therefore, bubble collapse could be detected through the impact of T on the k_h of the stems in a way that is very similar to the methods used by Yang and Tyree (1992) but requires a more sophisticated centrifuge technique to induce embolism.Many studies have assumed that the bubble pressure in newly cavitated vessels ought to be near atmospheric pressure, and no corrections for bubble pressure have been taken in measuring percentage loss of conductivity (PLC) when T is lower than a critical threshold (Li et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2014a). As a result of bubble collapse, the measured k_h under a mild T should be higher than that under high T (greater than 0.5 MPa). And the lower the initial bubble pressure, the more bubbles collapse with decreasing T.The aim of this study is to construct a model that estimates average bubble pressure in partly embolized stems from the functional dependence of k_h on T, and with this model, we can further our understanding of the tempo of bubble formation in stems. Here, we will argue that the tempo of bubble formation is in two phases: an initial rapid phase (seconds to minutes to complete) followed by a much slower phase (many hours to complete). Since there is no method for measuring the rapid phase, the rapid phase will be described theoretically below. Next, a theory will be developed that allows the estimation of the pressure of air in recently formed bubbles in vessels during the slow phase. An experimental validation of the model will follow that will yield values of bubble pressure within the first 1 to 2 h following the fast phase of embolism formation in vessels.